The world knows Matthew Shepard. But Michele Josue will always think of her old friend as simply Matt.

Matt from boarding school in Switzerland, who acted alongside Josue in school plays such as Chekhov's “Three Sisters” and “Godspell.” Matt, who was truly free on stage. Matt, who liked to kid around with friends.

Josue and Matt grew close before he came out as gay -- years before he was tied to a buck-rail fence and beaten with a .357 Magnum outside Laramie. She knew Matt before he died of his injuries, before he became a symbol of the hate and intolerance faced by gays and lesbians in rural America.

Josue, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, shares memories about Shepard in a new documentary, “Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine.” The product of nearly four years of filming, fundraising and traveling, the documentary won the Cleveland International Film Festival’s top prize, The Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award, March 30.

“Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine” is different in that it was made by one of his friends, Marsden said.

“It is solely about people who knew Matt,” said Marsden, who appears in the film talking about his and Shepard’s love of politics and international affairs. “It’s about his life through the lens of people who were closest to him.”

Josue traveled around the globe to interview people who knew Shepard, including his parents, Dennis and Judy. Her film also includes 1990s-era high school photos and camcorder videos of Shepard and Josue in plays and traveling together.

That footage is mixed with contemporary shots of Josue visiting the site where Shepard was beaten, the hospital where he was pronounced dead and a priest who ministered at the University of Wyoming campus after the murder.

School friends

Josue and Shepard met at The American School in Switzerland. He ended up there after his family moved from Casper to Saudi Arabia, which lacked an American-style secondary school at the time.

Acting was their thing.

“I think because Matt was such a sensitive person and he was so empathetic, he could get into the mindset of another human being and feel what it was like to be in their shoes,” she said. “That’s what made him such a great actor.”

Shepard came out during his freshman year of college. Josue, who was younger, was still in boarding school. In sharing personal details of Shepard’s life, Josue is hoping to strip away Shepard’s larger-than-life legacy.

“No human being can live up to the standards of an icon,” she said. ”People are going to inevitably feel disappointed.

"The thing is, Matt never asked for any of this," she continued. "He was just a normal kid, a normal human being, going through life, trying to find his way in the world. I think that’s what was lost in the Matthew Shepard narrative.”

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Josue recalled feeling uncomfortable as she watched her friend morph into a symbol. In addition to the symbol of a martyr killed by hate, he became an emblem of gay civil rights. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act, passed 11 years after Shepard’s murder, extended federal hate crimes law to attacks based on sexual orientation.

“I do understand the significance of what he’s done for the LGBT community,” Josue said. “I don’t want to take away from that. But I want people to know he was just a boy, a human being who was not unlike their friend or brother or son.”

Josue makes Shepard real by sharing intimate details of his life, even unpleasant ones such as when he was sexually assaulted in Morocco or when he fell into bouts of depression.

By depicting Shepard as a real person Josue also attempts to remind viewers that Shepard’s murder could have happened to anyone. Two men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, are serving life sentences for the crime.

It's been 15 years since Shepard died. Josue needed time to process his murder before embarking on the film.

"I wasn’t emotionally ready. I don’t think any of his friends were ready," she said. "We were so young. I think I was just 19 when I found out about the news. It took all this time to emotionally gain enough perspective.

"I knew I always wanted to share a story and honor him in a film. I just wanted to do it justice.”

Film screening

The documentary, “Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine” screened Thursday at the 18th Annual Shepard Symposium at the University of Wyoming. No other screenings in Wyoming are planned. The film doesn’t have a distributor yet. Michele Josue, the film’s director, and Liam McNiff, the film’s producer, have been showing the film to audiences by request. If you have a group that would like to see the film, you can request a screening at: mattshepardisafriendofmine.com/screenings.

“No human being can live up to the standards of an icon. People are going to inevitably feel disappointed. The thing is, Matt never asked for any of this. He was just a normal kid, a normal human being going through life, trying to find his way in the world. I think that’s what was lost in the Matthew Shepard narrative.” - Michele Josue, director, “Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine”

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(13) comments

Homosexual groups target gay journalist Stephen Jimenez for his Book of Matt which offended homosexual groups & have been trying to keep Stephen Jimenez’s Book of Matt from being sold. Honest discussion is discussing & rebutting-not censoring because 1 finds something offensive.

Gay bashing victims will face the same public opinion court as gay bashers. If there are ugly truths about a homosexual which the media omits as they most media did with Methew Wayne Shepard, then we will use our free speech rights to tell the ugly truths about the homosexual even if others dislike it. & there is nothing any1 can do to legally stop us from telling the ugly truths. Gay bashing victims will face the public opinion court as gay bashers do and ugly truths will be told about a homosexual if it’s found though it offends homosexual groups.

What about the rights of the 2 boys who Methew W. Shepard molested when he was 15 years old & got counseling for? Metthew Wayne Shepard (1976-1998) was not the innocent as he has been portrayed by Laramie Project or films like Shepard is a Friend of Mine. Metthew Wayne Shepard was a junky who assoc. with drug dealers in both Colorado & Wyoming, was possibly a drug dealer himself (Methew Wayne Shepard could also possibly have been a drug courier or a lookout, but whether or not he was a drug dealer he did assoc. with drug dealers) & when he was 15 years old, he was arrested for molesting 2 boys & he got counseling by Natrona County Juvenile Court for molesting 2 boys. JUDY L. SHEPARD AND HER OTHER SON LOGAN P. SHEPARD ARE BOTH FAT & THEY GOT FAT GETTING RICH FROM EXPLOITING THEIR SON AND BROTHER FOR MONEY

You expect people to use their real name, and yet you're so insecure and afraid that you won't do the same. Coward. The last person that wrote that was threatening people that disagreed with him. You have no interest in conversation, you just want to intimidate people.

....and the facts are that when Matt Shepard was in Cody that summer before his death, and at various parties outside of and around town-he FORCED his Gay-ness on some young men who wanted nothing to do with him! One group left him at the lake because of it, and the one who finally gave him a ride back to town had to "throw him out of his motel room" -because of these Gay Advances on this young man who was Straight! Shepard actually called the cops (it's duly noted in the Police Dept there) on this young tourist and pressed charges against him for getting rough with shepard he wouldnt' leave his room! I know that that is no reason to Kill the young man, but this is quite another angle not to dismiss completely!

We would have been able to get to the bottom of it, if the evidence hadn't disappeared from the county attorney's office in Laramie. Isn't it interesting that a case of such magnitude wouldn't have been preserved better? It's not gay bashing if it's the truth. Someday the real story will come out, and what has been portrayed thus far in books and movies and this latest venture is all fabrication not fact. Don't go potty down my back and tell me it's raining!

Exactly KID, Shepard was nothing but a drug addict that put himself in the position to be killed. Gays are killed all the time in the US because of drug deals gone wrong, just like non gays. There was no hate crime here, it was a drug crime exploited by the gays to move there agenda ahead. Shepard is no icon he was nothing but a meth head.

You story would have been more complete Laura, if your story would had included parental guidance in keeping the wrong company with known druggies that may have had a different outcome. But unfortunately we're reading all about what this murder was "not about". This story should had dealt with "specifically college-aged young-adults" not to do drugs and flee from those that use. But instead the gay community infiltrated this tragic murder story, pasting their hate crime mantra, instead of the truth. Matthew should have been a better thinking college student but, unfortunately the "bad company" he apparently met and kept cost him his life. I really doubt if anyone will know for sure if this was a drug-deal gone bad, from a kid being robbed for his extra cash? What is for sure, the guys paying the price for this are known druggies around the Laramie area as this went down. With even more tragedy added to this story, Matthew's apparent sexual behavior being politically correctly added to that same unknown. Court documents point towards who these people are, including Matthew but, since Matthew's sexual behavior was made known. Gay hate came out of all this ...

I'd like to see an "investigated report" for once talk about who these guys are and Matthew got to know these guys. I'd be willing to bet that vtrue facts would easily change the complexion of the "Matthew Shepherd Story", steering it clear from the gay agenda.

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